Israel launches second missile attack on Damascus, targets Iranian militia sites
Damascus/Syria: Israel conducted its second missile attack on areas southwest of the Syrian capital of Damascus within hours on Wednesday, according to reports from a war monitor and local media.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Israel targeted sites belonging to Iranian militias in the area, adding that there is currently no information regarding any human or material losses as a result of the attack.
Additionally, rocket shells launched by Israeli forces landed in Beit Jinn in the western countryside of Damascus, near the border with the occupied Golan Heights, according to the Britain-based watchdog group.
The Sham FM radio, a pro-government media outlet in Syria, said that air defences intercepted missiles in the southern and southwestern countryside of Damascus. Furthermore, Israeli rocket fire was also reported on Mount al-Sheikh in southern Syria.
Eyewitnesses in the Mazzeh neighbourhood, west of Damascus, told Xinhua that a thundering sound similar to that of an earthquake was heard when the Israeli strike occurred.
Earlier on Wednesday, an Israeli missile attack hit a residential building in the Kafar Sousah neighborhood in Damascus, resulting in the deaths of two civilians, as confirmed by the Syrian Defense Ministry.
The missiles hit the fourth and fifth floors of the building, with preliminary information indicating injuries.
(Missile strikes on the fourth and fifth floor of a residential area in Kafar Sousah (courtesy: UNI/Xinhua))
Sources said Israeli missile strikes have become routine in Syria, and hitting residential areas usually implies an assassination attempt.
The observatory suggested that the attack in Kafar Sousah was an assassination attempt targeting individuals associated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
While Israel has frequently carried out missile strikes on Syrian targets, hitting residential areas is unusual and indicates an assassination attempt.
This incident follows a similar attack on Jan 20, during which five IRGC officers were killed in a missile strike on the Western Mazzeh Villas neighbourhood in Damascus.
(With UNI/Xinhua inputs)